Hyannis home runs extend Braves’ skid to three

By: Zach Pekale

One of the biggest obstacles that players adjust to in the Cape Cod Baseball League is the use of wooden bats. However, in the past two games, opposing teams have hit the Bourne Braves hard.

On Friday, the Hyannis Harbor Hawks extended that streak to three games, hitting two home runs in a 5-2 win over the Braves.

First baseman Pedro Pages (Florida Atlantic) hit a two-run blast off of Justin Lasko (Massachusetts) in the top of the fourth before Tommy Jew (UC Santa Barbara) matched, taking reliever Andy Archer (Georgia Tech) deep to left field.

In the loss, Braves’ starter Justin Lasko allowed three earned runs on four hits, striking out four in five innings for his first loss of the summer.

“They’ve been here for about a month, they’ve been seeing the pitches, getting used to the wood bats. It’s just a mix of them getting used to the pitching and us making bad pitches,” Lasko said. “I made a bad pitch tonight, threw a slider that didn’t move much and Pages made me pay for it.”

Trailing 3-0 early, Bourne began to rally behind the bats of Ashton Bardzell (Hartford) and Chase Murray (Georgia Tech).

Bardzell hit a league-leading third triple that scored Thad Phillips (Connecticut) before Murray brought Bardzell around with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2 prior to Jew’s home run.

“Me and [assistant coach] Joe Lincoln talked about it before today, you can’t ride the rollercoaster with the game because of how weird it is sometimes and today is one of those days,” Murray said. “We all can’t get down because we’ve lost a few in a row here.”

The Braves threatened in the bottom of the ninth after Spencer Brickhouse (East Carolina) walked and Lyle Lin (Arizona State) singled but a game-ending double play by Tyler Fitzgerald (Louisville) sank Bourne for a third consecutive night.

Coming Up: The Braves head to Eldredge Park for their final meeting of the season with the Orleans Firebirds.